The Dean

........... in the....... er........ Wall Street Journal.....

"Why I'm An Atheist"........ superb............

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/...im-an-atheist/

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/...our-questions/

mentalist

He has my vote.

britexpat76

Brilliant.

Theseus

Awesome - this is exactly what I told my grandparents when they asked me why I don't believe in god. My grandfather said what makes you want to be a good person if you don't think you'll be punished for not being good in the next life?

I also said doesn't it make you a better person if you are good without thinking it might get you something in the next life, true altruism, rather than buying a piece of nirvana.

Well done Ricky, I usually think he's a bit of a cock

loobie85

Interesting thread...in some ways I see where Ricky is coming from and applaud his honesty. However when he says "People who believe in God don’t need proof of his existence, and they certainly don’t want evidence to the contrary" I disagree.
I personally believe in God but would not call myself overly religious. I think that belief is basically "believing something beyond a reasonable doubt" and that for me has been formed I think from looking at proof of existence carefully. Seeing anything to the contrary would not be something I would avoid it would be something I would embrace. I think Ricky is a bit narrow in this comment and assumes that to believe in God you are either "blind" to evidence or choose to avoid it. I personally love intelligent science and don't see why it has to contradict reasonable faith...

Sally Redux

There is a lot of 'reasonable doubt' left as to whether a God exists.

loobie85

True but I think you can believe something beyond a reasonable doubt whether in favour of God or not. I choose to trust in him. Maybe I am wrong but I guess one day I will find out...

Lorna at Vicenza

and when you do find out - there's bound to be somebody here who will say "I told you so" one way or another.

loobie85

Haha most likely...guess it's one of life's great mysteries...

Meow

If you believe in a god, then who created him/her/it?

The Dean

..... or 'them'?

scrubbedexpat141

The issue is, that it actually isn't.

shiva

the word reason has no place in any context when combined with faith.

reasonable faith does not exist, in order to have faith in god one must discard reason all together

why do you choose to trust in him?

you have arbitrarily defined your sky fairy as a him, with not one single piece of evidence for his existence in the first place. I'd suggest trusting in yourself as this is what you are doing anyway so just remove the reference to god

Sally Redux

Just hope you are not on my jury

loobie85

Hiya in response to the" who created the creator" I believe in a God that is an eternal, self-existent Being (the uncaused first cause)
Apologetic Junkie I think puts it well. I guess my line of thinking is similar. If you are interested the link is http://apologeticjunkie.blogspot.fr/...d-creator.html